80 years ago today.

outofyourmind said:
The Japs were so fucking scared they didn't even finish the job and failed to send their 3rd wave, which would have destroyed the Dry Docks and Fuel Storage.

It was a fatal decision for them. And they paid the price for it in years to come

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No doubt a major tactical blunder and combined with the fact that Nagumo didn't go looking for the carriers that were out on manuevers all they did was piss us off and delay the inevitable.
 
My Great Uncle was a SeaBee and cleared a lot of jungles and built air strips.
One of my Uncles was on a ship heading to the Japanese Invasion when we dropped the bomb.

Thank God for that.


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I’ve been to Pearl Harbor and the AZ memorial several times in my life. The museum itself has come a long way over the years and it’s now a legit tour with headphones that guide you thru the artifacts which allow you to go at your own pace.

However, the highlight has always been and remains the short 20 minute film and boat ride out to the AZ Memorial itself. The film talks briefly about the actions by the Japanese in the early stages of WWII, the events at Pearl Harbor and the Hawaiian Islands the previous night/that morning and then the attack. It hasn’t changed in all the years I’ve been going and it’s amazing.

Immediately following the film you take a boat ride out to the memorial. You then disembark and tour the memorial. It’s built right over the sunken ship and you can see parts of it sticking up from the water. At one end it has the names of all those who died on board as well as the names of those who survived, died later and chose to be buried at sea with their shipmates. It’s a place you never forget.
 
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I found what appears to be a bootleg copy of the short 20 minute film they show before the boat ride. Because it’s a bootleg copy the video isn’t perfect (you can’t see the captions and the lens is off center) and there is an annoying baby cry throughout most of the film but if you’ve never seen the film I highly recommend watching it. Like I said, although the museum itself has changed a lot over the years this film hasn’t. It still gives me chills.



also found this one. I haven’t watched the whole thing but it appears to be the same film where the video quality is even less than above but there doesn’t appear to be an annoying baby cry in it. Your choice…

 
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outofyourmind said:
My Great Uncle was a SeaBee and cleared a lot of jungles and built air strips.
One of my Uncles was on a ship heading to the Japanese Invasion when we dropped the bomb.

Thank God for that.


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My uncle on my dad's side was over 6' at 15 years old and ran away from home to join the navy.

He made it all the way by train to boot camp in San Diego and was already in the barracks before they caught up to him and sent him back.
One of his friends had finally came clean to where he'd gone.

When he got back by train he told my grandma he would just run away again, so when he turned 16 a couple months later she signed the consent papers so he could go in.

He ended up being 6'8" tall as an adult.
 
My grandfather's Naval ship was sunk during WWII and he saved the American Flag from the ship before it sank which my grandma then gave to my cousin when he passed away and gave me the flag that draped his casket. My aunt was actually born in Japan while my Grandpa served again in the Navy during the Korean War Peace Talks. My folks took a trip to Japan about 10 years ago to sightsee and revisit where they lived while stationed there.

Anyway, my OTHER grandma could not understand why my parents would want to go to Japan. You could tell she was still pissed at what the Japs did back then, even at 90 some years old and in a nursing home.
 
80 years now. I still make sure my children know this was a horrendous day and event, not a footnote.

My grandmother said it well….she’s remembers exactly where she was when she heard two things….Pearl Harbor and JFK. Didn’t mention the same level of Roosevelt dying, or even V-E/V-J days. Those two events in her life were that stark.

Maybe she also would have remember 9/11 the same but she was going downhill at that point and died two months after that horrific day.
 
outofyourmind said:
My mother was 6 years old when Pearl Harbor happened.
She would tell me stories about rationing, and how family members would get extra sugar on the black market, and how everyone had ration books. And rubber. Tires were hard to get.

Oh, and fuck the Japs
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Dad was 8 or 9 when Pearl was hit. They were sharecroppers and Dad occasionally milked cows at their neighbors' dairy farm in exchange for milk and butter. Grandpa told us that the rationing was a boon for them because they lived off their farm by raising a few hogs and canning their own food. Selling their rationing coupons was their main source of income. Back then, Grandpa would borrow about $30 to make a crop and got the low end of a 60-40 split when the crops got to market, minus the $30. "We had a depression but none of us could tell it", was his favorite saying.
 
batchaps4me said:
Dad was 8 or 9 when Pearl was hit. They were sharecroppers and Dad occasionally milked cows at their neighbors' dairy farm in exchange for milk and butter. Grandpa told us that the rationing was a boon for them because they lived off their farm by raising a few hogs and canning their own food. Selling their rationing coupons was their main source of income. Back then, Grandpa would borrow about $30 to make a crop and got the low end of a 60-40 split when the crops got to market, minus the $30. "We had a depression but none of us could tell it", was his favorite saying.
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I used to take my grandma to the grocery store once a week when she was in her early 90''s.
I could have gotten a handicap placard to use when she was with me, but she'd have none of that. "Someone else needed it more."
I even offered to drop her off at the front door, go park, and meet her inside. "No. You'll hold up the cars behind you. I can walk just fine".
She always had a pile of coupons. It would take the cashier 10 minutes to enter them all. Sometimes they would debate that she couldn't use 2 coupons on one item. The manager would get called over to evaluate and yep she was right. 2 x .10 = .20 off a .40 can of fruit cocktail, limit 5. She had 5.
One day when we were walking back to my truck she started wandering away. I watched here go over behind a car, get down on her belly (in a damn dress and nylons), and do a marine crawl a couple feet under.
She emerged with a shiny penny just happy as can be and said "Finders Keepers". Them horned rim glasses on a chain were damn good.
 
Red_Alert said:
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Torpedoed after it's top secret mission to deliver the parts for the A-bomb.

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The story that Quint told about the Indianapolis in jaws was eery as fuck turned out to be a rather accurate recollection of what really happened. It always blew my mind that the Navy not only didn't send rescue help, but the basically didn't even acknowledge that the ship was even out there :L
 
Rex Racer said:
The story that Quint told about the Indianapolis in jaws was eery as fuck turned out to be a rather accurate recollection of what really happened. It always blew my mind that the Navy not only didn't send rescue help, but the basically didn't even acknowledge that the ship was even out there :facepalm:
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During the Cold War, submarines were treated in the same manner. Up until the early 90s at least.
 
As the US declared war on Japan after December 7th, Adolf Hitler declared war on the USA. German U-Boats immediately started sinking merchant ships off the East and Southern coasts of America. On February 28, 1942 the US Naval Destroyer USS Jacob Jones DD130 was on patrol off Cape May (New Jersey) and Cape Delaware. In the early hours, the Jacob Jones spotted a fiery oil slick from a sunken oil tanker.

While searching for survivors, the USS Jacob Jones was struck by torpedoes from German submarine U-578. The first torpedo hit the ships magazine destroying the officer’s quarters and the second torpedo struck 40 feet forward the fantail destroying the after crew’s quarters.

The USS Jacob Jones stayed afloat for 45 minutes allowing approximately 30 survivors to escape in 4-5 lifeboats but unsecured depth charges exploded as the ship sank and killed many of the initial survivors. In total, 12 survivors were rescued but one died on the trip ashore.

Among the dead sailors from the USS Jacob Jones was my Uncle. My Aunt never remarried.
 
My parents were young with 3 small girls. Dad immediately enlisted and got sent to a hospital ship.

This same ship was the 1st one into Nagaski after the bomb to rescue our POWS there.

He wasn't supposed to have a camera but, of course, he did and brought home some stunning pictures of the destruction.
 
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